DESCRIPTION: The primary specific aim of this project is to reduce the number of injuries to miners through an integrated program of training intervention and translational research. This project will specifically develop and implement a broadly collaborative western U.S. program that does the following: 1) Identifies the training needs of mining personnel, today and in the near future; 2) Develops and conducts a coordinated, systematic targeted, and multi-faceted Western training program, which addresses prioritized mine safety and health issues; 3) Provides qualified instructors and faculty across the West to train mining personnel in thrust areas; 4) Evaluates the effectiveness and impact of the training program on reducing injuries to mining personnel; 5) Conducts limited translational projects that convert essential mining occupational health and safety research results with limited dissemination into information, resources, and tools that can achieve wider dissemination. The training provided by this program will satisfy current OSHA, MSHA, and NIOSH recommendations and guidelines. Through training and translational efforts, this project will also address the developing gap in experience by capturing the expert knowledge and situation-based judgements of miners in some of the industry's most persistent hazardous jobs. In order to ensure the effectiveness of training tools the NIOSH critical elements of training, which hinge on the Training Intervention Effectiveness in Research (TIER) method recommended by NIOSH, will be used as a general guide for activities. Using this approach, the effectiveness of the tools will be demonstrated through a set of well defined, measurable, outcomes focused on attaining for miners the desired learning of knowledge via training scenarios requiring expert skills and judgements. Follow-up analyses to determine the impact on mine site and regional accident and injury experiences will be done.